A decision by supermarket chain Asda to increase the price it pays for milk is a move in the right direction, the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) has said.
Some dairy farmers have said they face going out of business if prices they receive for their products do not rise. They have held protests at supermarkets to show their frustration that they are currently paid less than the cost of production.
Asda has said it will begin paying 28p a litre for milk from Monday. Dairy farmers currently receive about 19p a litre for milk, well below the cost of production at about 27p. Asda confirmed on Friday that it had told Dale Farm, its Northern Ireland supplier, that it will increase the price it pays to 28p a litre.
It said this would “assist our farmers during the current crisis”. Read more

Farmers and their families protests at Stormont last week over the falling price they are receiving for milk (Photo: BBC)

Retailers in Northern Ireland have defended supermarkets’ milk pricing policy after protests by farmers over what they get paid for their product.
Farmers staged a blockade at two stores in County Londonderry on Thursday and cleared milk from shelves at an Asda store in County Tyrone on Friday.
Farmers for Action said milk was being sold cheaper than bottled water.
But the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium blamed the fall in milk prices on “global economic trends”.
‘Exchange rates’
The consortium’s director, Aodhán Connolly, said: “The price of water and the price of milk are completely different things. “What we have to understand here is that it’s global economic trends, that are beyond the control of Northern Ireland farmers and Northern Ireland retailers, that are the root cause of the reduced price for milk at the moment.” Mr Connolly told the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme that the price retailers pay farmers “is not connected to the price they charge customers”. “Individual retailers have decided to cut milk prices and they, not farmers, are paying for the price cuts that are currently being enjoyed by consumers,” he added. Read more

Dairy farmers are telling consumers not to buy milk at Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl or Londis – and think twice about Asda and the Co-operative – as the battle over prices spills on to the high street.

The row centres on the “farm gate” price paid to Britain’s 14,500 dairy farmers, most of whom will, from 1 August, receive just 25p a litre for the milk they produce compared with around 30p before. The price cut will force many into bankruptcy, warns the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers, which along with the National Farmers Union and Farmers For Action say that 30p a litre is the minimum price that producers can survive on. Read more.